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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Supreme Court rules 911 call enough for traffic stop

The Supreme Court upheld, 5 to 4, a California Highway Patrol officer's search of a pickup truck that was stopped by police after a 911 caller reported that the vehicle had run her off the road, according to The Crime Report. "That made it reasonable under the circumstances for the officer to execute a traffic stop," wrote Justice Clarence Thomas. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito. After the truck was stopped, officers smelled marijuana and found 30 pounds of pot in a search, which the driver and a passenger challenged.
In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia predicted that law enforcement agencies would conclude that the case establishes a new rule: "So long as the caller identifies where the car is, anonymous claims of a single instance of possibly careless or reckless driving, called into 911, will support a traffic stop. This is not my concept ... of a people secure from unreasonable searches and seizures." He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. The case is Prado Navarette et al. v. California
Read the Full Opinion

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An analysis of crime and punishment from the perspective of a former prosecutor and current criminal justice practitioner.
The views expressed on this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or postions of any county, state or federal agency.